I know I'm going to get lambasted but I don't care. I wear a helmet much of the time when I ride my motorcycle but sometimes I do not. I make no apologies.
This annual trip we're now on is one place you can bet I'll be riding lidless at times. If you never have done so you just don't comprehend how freeing, how gloriously wonderful it is to ride without that bucket on your head. I'm not proselytizing, I'm not trying to convince anyone else to ride without a helmet, I'm just saying that at times I do and when I do I love it. It's heaven.
Take our ride over Wolf Creek Pass in Utah the other day. Between the intermittent showers we encountered, it was an "Oh my god" sort of incredibly beautiful day. You've been outside on days like that, walking in the park, sitting in your backyard, whatever. Now imagine how it would have been had you been wearing a helmet. It would have put a bit of a damper on the glorious day, wouldn't it? Don't think for an instant that doesn't happen on the bike. Riding without the helmet is a different world.
Of course people remark about catching the occasional bugs or bits of grit in your face, and no, that's not pleasant. But it's really not that unpleasant. In fact, while I usually duck down behind my fairing when it starts to sprinkle, the other day I decided to just sit upright and take the stinging needles full on my face, just to see how bad it really was. You know what? Compared to a lot of other unpleasant things I've experienced this really was no big deal. And for me, the pain is worth the pleasure. I know it is for a lot of other people, too.
For some of us, safety and comfort are just not the end-all and be-all in the world. You don't take stupid risks, and you don't set out to kill or maim yourself, but you're willing to take some risk because if you didn't take any risk you might as well be a vegetable growing in a well-tended garden. And well-tended vegetables still end up getting eaten.
What's more, I've been riding motorcycles for more than 40 years, and a good part of that, especially in the early years, was without a helmet. In that time I've gone down once and was not wearing a helmet that time, but I did not suffer a head injury. Think of all the joy I would have missed out on in all that time. No, I make no apologies.
"AGTATT doesn't mean much if you get run over by 60,000 pounds of truck and cargo."
Make no mistake, I wear my helmet a lot. But sometimes I choose not to. I'll take my risks and make my choices. It's called freedom.
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